Secret to Bottom Paint

The secret to a great bottom finish is using Interlux 355 Vinyl-Lux Solvent as a thinner with the VC Offshore paint and applying with West System foam rollers.

Due to recent environmental laws, wet sanding is no longer an option in Rhode Island so we elected to dry sand using an orbital sander with a built in vacuum that we rented from The Ships Store & Rigging in nearby Portsmouth, RI.

After applying 3 coats of VC Offshore, the entire bottom was sanded with 400 grit, which is the finest grit available in the required disc size. My captain claims "in retrospect it would have been more efficient to do a first pass with 240 followed by a second pass with 400 grit".